An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c29.96

v2.c29.96

Pd I had two Sub-pds, A and B, both Chalcolithic, overlying the Black Cotton Soil [9.1]. Sub-pd A was distinguished by a thick grey ware in the shape of the globular jar with a flared rim, reminiscent of the BRAHMAGIRI urn, bowl with flat base and incurved rim and handmade storage jar with incised oblique and criss-cross lines or dot-and-chain patterns and with bold applied decoration of finger-tips and female figurines of the fertility goddess. A few sherds of thinner grey ware had paintings in red ochre on the rim portion of the pot or on the knob of the lid shaped like a shallow bowl. This pottery is also met with in Pd III of DAIMABAD. Sub-pd I B produced fine red ware turned on the fast wheel. It was painted in black with a rich variety of designs—horizontal bands with hatched diamonds, triangles, ladders, concentric circles and criss-cross, parallel lines and antelope and horse (?); the last-mentioned pottery with animal paintings bears similarity with the DAIMABAD pot bearing a painted band of a procession of antelopes, leopard and a human being. A few sherds of lustrous red-slipped ware recalls the post-Harappa Lustrous Red Ware [11.9] of RANGPUR. The upper levels of this Sub-pd contained the carinated bowl and spouted vessel of the NASIK-JORWE type, but the typical burials of the Jorwe culture [4.14.6] with two or three urns placed horizontally mouth to mouth [12.4] were not met with at Bahal, nor the extended burials seen in the Chalcolithic levels at DAIMABAD and INAMGAON. The burnished grey ware found in Sub-pd I A and black ware with oblique lines painted in white continued in this Sub-pd. The other finds consisted of beads of terracotta, shell and paste, microliths of chalcedony, agate and jasper—mostly parallel-sided blades, sometimes serrated, and less frequently lunates and trapezes—and terracotta comb-like objects made out of sherds and bones. The limited use of copper was indicated by a shapeless lump of metal.